Liwonde National Park

 

Malawi's foremost game-viewing region

To the south of Lake Malawi is the country's best game-viewing area, Liwonde National Park. The Shire River (pronounced 'sheery') runs out of Lake Malombe and right through the western edge of the park attracting great numbers of game.

 

A great variety of game

Liwonde has a healthy elephant population as well as small herds of beautiful sable, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, hartebeest and, very excitingly, a number of black rhino. The river is home to crocodiles, mud turtles and an extraordinary density of hippos - approximately 40 per mile!

Elephants are frequently seen at the water's edge as are bushbuck, waterbuck, reedbuck, oribi, kudu, klipspringer and sable. Leopard and hyena live here too but are rarely seen, unlike genet, civet and serval who are all regularly spotted. Warthogs, bushpigs, vervet monkeys and mongoose also abound.

Birdlife here is famously rich and, like the Nyika Plateau, there are over 400 recorded species. The river is the favoured locality for fish eagles, cormorants, herons and hamerkops. In the grasslands there are many different kinds of bee-eater - and in the wooded areas there are many beautiful sunbirds as well as the migratory European swallow.